Ian flies the world

New York and Washington again

13 May 1988 Pan American 1 London Heathrow to New York JFK
13 May 1988 Pan American 779 New York JFK to Washington
National

As we wanted to fly on these dates anyway, it was a very
welcome announcement that Pan Am was introducing a discounted
fare on their North American routes. It worked very simply.
Whatever fare (be it APEX or full First Class) you paid, another
passenger travelling with you for the whole itinerary, on the
same reservation, went for half the price. This was too good to
be ignored. We chose the date of the outward flight carefully.
We supposed that few American passengers will choose to fly on
Friday 13th. This turned out to be reasonably correct, and we
hoped it meant that the outward flights would be less busy than
usual.

We have learned from our previous mistakes. First, we will
not travel to Dulles. Second, we will travel with on-line
connections. This minimises the possibility of problems. Even
though the flight is late, we will get to our destination in the
end. As it turned out, the flight was only delayed by a few
minutes. Probably this was because they didn't bother to clean
it while it was in London.

I think that this is the flight on which the in-flight
movie was Broadcast News, but I cannot be sure. Certainly it was
on one of our long-haul flights, which was a pity, as we had
seen it the previous weekend at a cinema, choosing it instead of
The Last Emperor which we wanted to see too. We never saw The
Last Emperor. Maybe we will see it on video, or as a rerun in
years to come.

The service on the flight was reasonable, to a point, and
the efficiency of immigration at Pan Am's New York terminal was
quite striking. We caught our connecting flight with no problem,
though there was more of a delay on this. Perhaps it is worth
noting that when a flight or a series of flights runs well, it
is much more difficult to find anything worthwhile to tell.

Our host had learned from his mistakes too, and stated
that he would be out when we arrived, singing with a choir as it
happened, and told us to ask for the key at reception. He came
back shortly after we had got there, and was surprised to hear
that we had only been there for a little while. He had expected
us to have arrived hours earlier.

17 May 1988 Pan American 246 Washington National to New York
LGA
17 May 1988 Pan American 267 New York LGA to Washington
National

We had hoped to spend some time in Boston on this trip,
taking two Shuttle journeys in each direction each day, thereby
visiting a new city and clocking up an enormous number of miles
in Pan Am's Worldpass scheme. Whenever travelling, you should
try in advance to become a member of the airline's frequent
traveller scheme, especially when this is free. By mid-1990, I
belonged to Pan American's Worldpass, Air New Zealand's Club
Pacific, British Airways' Blue Chip, as well as a couple of
others belonging to airlines with whom I have never flown
because at one point I thought there was a chance I might fly
with them. By late 1992, none of those three schemes still
existed. With Pan Am, each Shuttle journey counted for 2,000
miles, with extras for day trips, four or more journeys in a
month and so forth.

However, the one-way Shuttle fare had now risen again,
this time to USD 89. The prospect of each of us paying USD 356
for a day trip seemed rather daunting, so we made do with New
York.

The journey to New York was as it had previously been, a
short, prompt and straightforward flight. Morning flights on the
East Coast are always straightforward: evening flights are not.

Perhaps I should mention that when we left Washington DC
the weather had been warm and dry, and we were suitably dressed
for this, in light summer wear. How different things were in New
York. Very heavy rain fell there for most of the morning,
resulting in us being soaked comprehensively throughout the day.

Even so, on arrival in New York, we decided to save money
by catching the downtown Shuttle bus. For about USD 8 we were
dropped at Grand Central Station. I am inclined to say that the
only thing grand about it is the name, and the shopping mall
associated with it.

We took refuge in a variety of places and art galleries,
and decided that as we were already wet, we would investigate
two of New York's more famous maritime sites. There was, for
once, no queue for the Statue of Liberty ferry, and we had an
interesting but wet journey over and back. The cost of the
journey was around USD 4. By contrast, the Staten Island ferry
was a very large ship, charging just 25 cents for the return
journey. It was interesting to travel on the Staten Island
ferry; my only regret was that we didn't have any time to look
at Staten Island itself.

Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York and
from time to time threatens to secede from the rest of the city.
The other four are Bronx, Brooklyn, Queen's and Manhattan.

We returned to La Guardia by subway and bus in good time
to look around the terminal, check in and amble to the
aeroplane, where we waited for an hour. The weather wasn't too
bad, but there had been a storm earlier, and services were still
trying to recover from it.

After an hour, the passengers for the next Shuttle joined
us, and before long we were preparing for take-off. A final
reminder, we were told, this is the Pan Am Shuttle for
Washington National Airport. A passenger dressed smartly in a
suit looked up sharply and then ran to the front of the
aeroplane. He was hoping to go to Boston, and as both flights
leave at the same time, he would need to hurry. He was helped
off the flight and, presumably, onto the right one.

We, on the other hand, got home safely, though an hour
later than we had hoped.